PSA: Whitewashing In Fandom
As we all know, Rainbow and Winx Club have an extensive history of whitewashing characters, especially Aisha and Flora. While the fandom is good at calling out Rainbow's racism, we've noticed that within fandom spaces it doesn't get as much attention as it should.
This post will have a collection of character's skin tones and hair textures to help creators. We'll also be sharing a couple of tips to help combat whitewashing and racism from fans. Please remember that racism is a very serious issue and this post is only an attempt to limit the amount that comes from the fandom. This is not a call out post or something to stir drama. However, if you do feel offended by this post, examine that and don't direct your energy toward us.
The following graph depicts the Winx Club's usual skin tones in varying media. When creating content such as art, edits, etc we recommend sticking to the tones in the first row (aka S1-S3) as those are the most accurate. They are slightly lightened in S5 onward so I would avoid those. The comics will have varying tones depending on artist and quality of the scan so while they can be good references, you can't always rely on them. World of Winx, season 8, and the movies should be avoided at all costs as they are the worst offenders of whitewashing.
Whitewashing comes in all kinds of forms, not just lightening skin tone. One common way to whitewash characters of color, is to give them hair types typically associated with white people, especially when their natural hair isn't like that. This becomes more common the curlier the hair. To understand how to not do this, first you need to know what type of hair the Winx Club members have.
Type 1 ranges from 1A (bone straight) to 1C (straight with a slight wave). Type 2 hair ranges from a beachy wave to loose curls, and tends to hold a curl longer than type 1 hair. Type 3 hair brings us fully into the land of the curl, ranging from looser to tighter ringlets. Type 4 hair ranges from a tight ringlet to a kinky, coily texture. I would highly recommend looking up real life examples of each hair type to fully understand them!
In canon, the Winx Club have less diverse hair types and most of them are around the same. Bloom, Stella, Flora, Musa, and Tecna are all depicted with mostly straight, yet occasionally wavy hair. For them, anything within the Type 1 to Type 2A range (depending on the character) could work. Likely, the only difference between them will be the thickness of their hair. (Again this is in canon! Obviously, headcanons and redesigns will be different.)
Aisha's hair type is a little harder to pin because it changes so often, however there are a couple of clues to help us out. Aisha is usually drawn with very big, loose curls, so you could make the case that she has something like 2C hair. However, because of how voluminous her hair is, how well it holds shape, and the occasional updos she has, I suspect it's within the Type 3 to Type 4 range. When it comes to creating content with Aisha, try to at least not give her extremely straight hair, as this is a form of whitewashing. Regardless of which hair type you go for, keep it out of Type 1 to Type 2 as that wouldn't be representative of her natural hair type.
Here are some tips for the road!
-If you see whitewashing, call it out! You can always try to be nice about it, but don't ignore it. In fact, always be on the lookout for whitewashing as it happens all the time.
-For artists, editors, and other visual content creators, do not use an excuse for why your content is whitewashed if it is. No one cares what filters/psds you used or what reference you picked from. If what you created is whitewashed, take responsibility for it (and try to rectify the mistake).
-Please remember, there are other forms of racism within the fandom! You may not always recognize it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Listen to fans of color, do not speak over us, and do not try to excuse anyone who could be doing something wrong. Educate yourself as much as you can. We're not asking you to be political advocates, just decent human beings.
-When coloring Aisha and other black characters, please do not make their skin red. When coloring Indigenous characters, please do not make their skin red. When coloring Musa and other Asian characters, please do not make their skin yellow.
-Here are some links for gif makers and editors to help with avoiding whitewashing: one, two, and three.
This is not a comprehensive list. There are things we left out. The main takeaway here is that fandom racism is insidious and often times fans don't notice it. We do a good job at calling out Rainbow, but we need to do a better job at calling out fans. Again, this isn't a witch hunt post, just a very general reminder that fans are capable of doing the exact same things that Rainbow does and more. And anyone who creates content or is active in the fandom should try to do their part in avoiding it and calling it out when applicable.
Hopefully, this post helps people when creating content for the main Winx Club characters. We hope that by providing these reminders and tools, the fandom will be more mindful and careful of what they're creating and reblogging. There is no good excuse for whitewashing and we hope this post can help diminish what we see on a daily basis.
